CIES 2019: San Francisco Recap

Above: CIES Trivia Night reception co-sponsored by BEC

By popular demand, BEC co-hosted the second annual CIES Trivia Night with ECCN, Education Equity Research Initiative, FHI360, INEE, JEiE, and 2 SIGs. Trivia questions focused on education in conflict and crisis settings.175 guests attended the reception to meet colleagues, eminent leaders and scholars in the Education in Conflict and Crisis field. Anjuli Shivshanker (USAID) and Cornelia Janke (ECCN) gave opening remarks.  

BEC's Gender and Girls' Education working group organized a CIES panel: "Engaging governments to ensure sustainability; three case studies of civil society efforts to promote gender and girls’ education." Representatives from Room to Read, World Learning, The Brookings Institute and the Basic Education Coalition presented evidence and strategies that are working to advance progressive gender and girls' education around the world. More from the BEC Gender and Girls' Education working group. 

CIES was big on Twitter this year. Extend dialogue on #Ed4Sustainability from #CIES2019 and consider the #EdBeyondHuman theme of #CIES2020 in Miami, Florida. Read about next year's theme at http://cies2020.org.

Below: BEC members presenting research, at the BEC Booth in the exhibit hall, and mingling at receptions

Read the BEC 2018 Annual Report

BEC 2018 Annual Report

BEC Co-Hosts Meet the Authors Panel at Global Reading Network

Above: Authors Mary Sugrue and Deepa Srikantaiah, and Rebecca Rhodes (USAID)

On Friday, April 12th, 2019 The Global Reading Network and the Basic Education Coalition co-hosted a meeting to explore how best to distribute resources across education program components and across literacy and mathematics, to assure appropriate school support for strong learning outcomes in both discipline areas. The authors of GRN's newly published working paper, "Towards the Design and Implementation of Comprehensive Primary Grade Literacy and Numeracy Programs" presented findings from their review of the evidence base, lessons learned from comprehensive programs, and a potential research agenda during a 2-hour technical discussion. 

BEC Co-Hosts Inclusive Education Event at DAI

Above from right (Panel #1): BEC Co-Chair, Candace Debnam (STS) with Antonio Eskandar (DAI), Sue Swenson (Inclusion International), Jerry Mindes (GCE), and Josh Josa (USAID)

On Thursday, April 4th, BEC co-hosted a symposium on Inclusive Education at DAI, in Bethesda, Maryland. Donors, implementers and advocates convened in-person and via Webex to launch a dialogue about opportunities, lessons-learned, and next level of work in inclusive education for development. Sakil Malik (DAI) gave opening remarks. Panel #1 (pictured above) titled, "Policy Perspectives on Increasing Inclusiveness" responded to the following questions:

• What are the key concepts that we all need to understand as we talk about and design inclusive education programs?

• What are some of the foreseeable challenges to progress in inclusive education? What lessons have you learned for how to mitigate those challenges moving forward?

• How have you seen (or how could you envision) donors and governments successfully supporting inclusive education around the world?

• what gaps remain in the evidence base to effectively implement inclusive international education programs?

A second panel, "Implementer Perspectives on Increasing Inclusiveness" featured Deborah Backus (All Children Reading), Josh Josa (USAID), Dr. Lisa Wadors Verne (Benetech), Zehra Zaidi (DAI), and Farah Mahesri (education consultant). 

USAID Administrator Mark Green Launches new Private Sector Engagement Strategy at AEI

On Wednesday, December 12th, 2018, US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green spoke at AEI about the agency’s new private-sector engagement policy. Administrator Green outlined the goals of the program and the role of the private sector in fostering local ingenuity and innovation. He also discussed the importance of fostering self-sufficiency and of the judicious use of aid in both development and diplomacy to advance US national and humanitarian interests. Sarah Glass, also of USAID, provided the background for the policy and explained how her department will work to implement the policy on a daily basis.

Watch the event here
Read the U.S. Private Sector Engagement Strategy here